Lesson 22: Reaching Out with Love to New Converts and Less-Active Members

Many of us are familiar with the heartache that comes from seeing someone we care about come into the Church and then relatively quickly falling away.  Any time a member drifts away from full activity in the Church, it is the result of a myriad of reasons.  And at times there is a tendency to simply wash our hands of the matter because "they have their free agency."  It is true that every person has their agency and we cannot interfere with that.  however, it is equally true that we, as members of the Church, have the responsibility to reach out to them in love, concern, and friendship, and I believe there is much that we can do better to carry out this ministry in more Christ-like ways.  That is our goal-- to reach out in Christ-like ways.

The Activity:

1. Read the following statement (or do it in your own words):  Imagine that I invite you to join a club that I belong to.  It is the greatest club ever!  Our meetings are fun; we dress in cool clothes; we have great food; everyone there feels good that they are there.  You come with me a time or two and enjoy yourself.  You realize that this really is the world's greatest club and you join.  At first, it is still awesome.  People go out of their way to say hi and talk to you.  It seems like with every meeting you discover something else that you love about the club.  After a little time, you are asked to take care of some small things and you have a good time doing so.  You make a small mistake here or there-- nothing truly important but just out of the norm-- but that's just part of the fun and you continue on.  Once in a while the other club members use some acronym or word that you don't understand, but you fake it.  After all, you've been a member of the club for a little too long to ask those questions without being embarrassed.  My own situation in the club means that I'm not around as much as I used to be.  People don't seem to rush over to say hi and talk.  Yes, many people smile and greet you, but not a lot of people take time to talk a lot.  Then, one day you make a comment in a meeting that is wrong in some way and you can easily tell from the reaction of others-- maybe someone laughs, maybe someone says something snide, or maybe there is just an awkward pause.  In any case, you become self-conscious (maybe no one else even remembers that you said something incorrect, but you certainly do).  Things begin to feel different.  People seem to be avoiding you.  Eventually, the club doesn't seem so great and it's hard to remember what made you think it was so awesome before. At the same time, your friends from outside the club are inviting you to do things that are against what the club stands for.  Some are even criticizing the club.  When you try to find the answers, it's hard and not all of the answers are easy to find or understand.  You try to ask a club member but they simply tell you not to worry about your question-- that it will all work out in the end.  Maybe they even laugh a little that you have such a question.  So, it seems that the best course of action is to simply not talk about your questions because they don't seem to be things that are important to the club members really.  These are all non-issues.  So, maybe the problem is you.  
2. Now, ask the class members how they would feel in this situation? 
3. List what they say on the board.  Some potential answers might include things like:  I would feel alone/lonely; I would be confused; the questions I had would seem to become more important; etc.
4. Read the letter in section 2, paragraphs 3-6 ("My journey into the Church was unique . . .).
5. How is the class list similar to this woman's experience?
6. Discuss ways that class members could prevent/minimize these types of experiences.

Using the Activity:

Obviously, this activity is designed to be used at the beginning of class, but it could be used at some other time during the lesson.  And of course, there is no reason to read the situation in number one just as it is written.  You can obviously paraphrase/add/delete as you feel impressed. 

What I like about this lesson is that it is based on the idea of likening something to ourselves, but it is asking us to liken what it might be from someone else's experience.  This empathy is important in living the gospel and especially in reaching out to others.  As we understand the experiences of others better, we are less likely to dismiss or belittle their feelings.  No one wants to be someplace where their feelings and ideas are discounted.  So, we will never be effective in our efforts to reach out to others without developing this empathy.  This activity, hopefully, will help us to be more Christ-like in our efforts to reach out to others.

Lesson 21: The Latter-Day Miracle of Missionary Work

We have all had lessons on missionary work that only served to make us feel discouraged, embarrassed, and/or ashamed.  Or we have been asked to compile a list of friends (again) that we could share the gospel with.  Those lessons have their place in the Church.  Well, not the first type of lesson; that sort of lesson is never valuable because it doesn't lead to different behavior.  So, the activities I am going to share here are not directly geared towards those types of activities.  However, I believe that each activity here (there are 2) can and will, if done well, lead our class members to renew their conviction to share the gospel and undertake new efforts to do so.

Activity 1:

1. Review what was discussed last week, especially about strengthening our friendships with those around us who are not of our faith.
2. Ask for some class members to share what they have done this past week to implement the ideas from last week.
3. Read the 3rd paragraph in Section 1 ("Let us as Latter-day Saints . . .).
4. Discuss how these sorts of small steps to be better friends will make it easier to fulfill the command to share the gospel.  Be sure here to treat being better friends as exactly what it is-- a way to be a missionary.  So, if someone is being a good/better friend to those around them, they are being a missionary.
5. Discuss again on ways of reaching out in true friendship to those around us who are not of our faith.  Focus on building relationships of trust (to use the old missionary term :)  ). 

Activity 2:

1. Divide the class into two parts.
2. Ask the first group to read Section 3, paragraph 3 ("We ask that parents . . .") and then discuss specific things that they are doing to fulfill the challenge of President Hinckley in this part to prepare their children for future missionary service.
3. Ask the other group to read Section 3, paragraphs 8-9 ("Along with the need . . .") and then discuss specific things they are doing to fulfill the challenge of President Hinckley in this quote to prepare to serve a mission themselves in the future.
4. Come back together and ask each group to share the things that they came up with.
5. List them on the board and look for similarities and differences.
6. Discuss as a class

Activity 3 (You may consider this a cop out, but I believe this would be effective):

1. Identify someone you know that is a convert and would be comfortable sharing their conversion story with others.  This could be a person that is part of the class or not.  You might even use technology to skype in someone that you know from outside the ward/branch you live in.  This could be especially powerful, if it were someone that you met and taught on your own mission.  Preferably, the focus of their story would be how regular members helped them to become interested and learn more about the gospel.
2. As a class, discuss what stood out to each person as they listened to that account. 
3. Invite anyone in the class who feels so moved to share part(s) of their conversion story.

Using These Activities:

Three activities is more than normal, I admit, but I was having trouble focusing on just one.  Of course, there are ways to adapt each of these activities to meet the needs of your class.  Many of them are mentioned in the specific activities themselves.  So, instead of going through those, I want to explain what I think is the important part of each of these.  First, we are more motivated to do things that we feel like we are already doing well at.  Mind you, our perceptions do not need to be accurate; as long as we feel like we are good at something, we are motivated to keep trying.  So, in these activities part of the focus is on helping the class members to feel good about their efforts to do missionary work already.  The most Christ-like people I know have always done this with me.  They encourage me even when I am probably not doing much well and I try even harder afterwards.  So, by focusing on what the class members are doing (Activities 1 and 2) already in missionary work, they will feel more desire to try even harder to do missionary work.  That is what we want.  The last activity is clearly based on the power of testimony and story.  We all get excited when we hear about missionary success stories.  So, by sharing one of those and then inviting others in the class to also share, we are creating a climate into which the Spirit can touch individual's hearts and increase their desire to participate.

I hope that one of these ideas will prove helpful to you.  Please let me know these ideas work.  I am eager to learn of their value.

Lesson 20: Fellowship with Those Who Are Not of Our Faith

I wince whenever I hear about church members who are not friendly with people who are not members or who only want to be friends with non-members as long as they want to learn more.  Ultimately, yes, we want everyone to accept the gospel and find the joy, peace, and happiness that we have.  However, in my experience that comes only after we have become friends-- genuine friends.  For that reason, I think that this is a really important lesson.

The Activity:

1. Make a list of words on the board.  Choose words from pages Section 2 that President Hinckley uses to describe how our relationships with people not of our religion should and should not be.  Some of these words include arrogant, appreciation, respect, acrimony, and neighborliness.
2. Ask the class members to sort the words in this list into two groups.  You could identify what the two groups should be or not.  The words are different enough that most people  would sort them into the appropriate groups without indication, I believe.
3. Explain that what these words are, if you have not already done so.
4. Ask class members to look through the chapter (or just this section) for quotes that include some of these words.
5. Ask them to share any of these quotes that really seem to stand out to them.
6. Discuss the quotes.
7. Fill in a table that looks something like the following (with as many rows as you wish):

Descriptor	Looks Like	Sounds Like	Feels Like	Results in
Respect
Civility

   

    8.  Discuss the entries.

Using the Activity:

There are several changes that could easily be made to this activity while still aiming at the objectives.  First, you can use whatever words you want.  I suggest using Section 2 as the source for these words, but you could easily use words from throughout the chapter.  Also, most parts of this activity could work just as well with smaller groups.  Finally, you could label the columns of the table differently if you so choose. 

The value of this activity is in considering the application of President Hinckley's counsel on this subject.  The idea is to push class members to think a little deeper about their relationships with the neighbors, co-workers, and friends who are not members of the Church.  We want them to consider how each of these words that President Hinckley uses could seem from multiple perspectives and ultimately to identify ways in which we could all treat those around us in more Christ-like ways.  Ultimately, those relationships will open doors to be able to share the gospel, which is the focus of next week's lesson.

I pray that this idea is of use to you and will help you as a teacher to find the inspiration and revelation that you need to do the Lord's work you are called to do.